Mayor installs safety banner on ?high-crash corridor?

PORTLAND, Ore. – Portland Mayor Sam Adams presented new safety banners over the city’s ‘high-crash corridors’ on SE Foster Road today. The banners stretch above the roadway and tell drivers to “see kids” as part of the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s work to reduce the number of crashes on city streets.

“Too many of our children are being killed and injured in traffic. Nationally, motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for kids between the ages of 3 to 14,” said Adams. “And although the numbers make the point that this is a significant issue, they don’t tell the story – the personal tragedy – behind each fatality. One of the major objectives of these safety banners is to show people that each crash is a story with a face behind it that involves someone’s neighbor, family member, co-worker, and love one.”

The Portland Bureau of Transportation is working to make the city’s highest-crash corridors safer through enhanced education, enforcement, and engineering strategies. High Crash Corridors are heavily-used streets with high vehicle speeds and more drinking and driving crashes, pedestrian fatalities, and distracted driving crashes. We have identified more than 10 high-crash corridors and are focusing on four corridors the first year: SE Foster Road, SE and NE 122nd Avenue, SW Barbur Boulevard, SE and NE 82nd Avenue.

In addition to the traffic safety messages, these banners will direct Portlanders to Public Alerts.org – a comprehensive information source during weather-related and other public emergencies. The message on the reverse side of the banner: “Sleet Happens. Know first at publicalerts.org.”

The Mayor was joined by representatives from the Portland Police Bureau, Oregon Department of Transportation, Elders In Action, Trauma Nurses Talk Tough and the Alliance for Community Traffic Safety Oregon.